How eLearning Got Better In 2018

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Over the decades since it rose to prominence, eLearning has been the mainstay of L&D departments’ initiatives. One contributor to its popularity is its adaptability, which renders it capable of absorbing new influences, ensuring that it stays relevant as a medium of delivery. Over the past few years, it has been heavily influenced by its modern counterpart – Microlearning, which brings with it a gamut of advantages such as efficiency, enhanced learner engagement and superior retention.

Through 2018, this has stood eLearning in good stead since the focus has been on making it more efficient. An eLearning module that consumed more seat time (Say 30 minutes) is today getting reduced to 20-25 minutes. Instructional Designers are working closely with subject matter experts to identify opportunities to reduce content wherever possible without reducing overall effectiveness. The result has been better retention, improved engagement. Working to continuously optimize learning, today’s experts truly understand the importance of reducing seat time.

Reducing seat time is not a linear, straight forward process – it typically involves creativity and hard work, and the willingness to think from the point of view of the learner. Working with learners, subject matter experts as well as learning gurus, L&D departments have ensures all their voices are heard. Some of these conversations and the ensuing brainstorming and hard work have resulted in some of the best eLearning solutions produced till date.

Naturally, this growth has been made possible by the immense strides in technology, encompassing not just the devices learning is delivered to, but also the delivery method. Changing usage patterns and newer hardware and software have made it possible to learn anytime and anywhere, but have also opened a pandora’s box. Now, more than ever before, it is essential to ensure that access to learning and sensitive data is secure and reliable.

This has led to the rise of Enterprise Mobility Management to allow organizations to secure and regulate employee use of mobile devices and applications. EMM Software maximises productivity by providing employees with the applications and data required to perform work-related tasks on mobile devices.

Spearheaded by established giants such as VMWare, BlackBerry, MobileIron, Citrix and Microsoft, EMM has become an essential system to put into place to ensure that the right data is available to the right people at the right time. Through 2018, as the workforce grew steadily more dependent on learning through mobile devices, EMM stepped up its game to expand its reach and scope.

In the field of Learning & Development, that has meant that learning can be delivered anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This extraordinary flexibility has come with immense rewards, but its own set of challenges. With this increase in reach comes the additional burden of ensuring that data remains secure. An ever-expanding plethora of devices to choose from has given rise to a need to ensure standardization to ensure that the learning is delivered effectively on all of them. Even though learning is possible anytime, anywhere, and in smaller, bite-sized chunks, it grows even more important to ensure that information is pared down to its most vital form to increase engagement and retention, despite the shorter delivery.

Through 2018 learning developers pushed boundaries and aligned digital learning to business performance. In 2019, we expect both elearning and Microlearning to co-exist, as they are two distinct delivery mediums for digital learning content, each with their own unique strengths. eLearning will continue to hold its place for certain content types, while Microlearning, with its significantly condensed format, has found its niche. What both these formats can achieve will continue to remain distinctly different.

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